On Jan 20, 2009, at 11:17 PM, John Howell wrote:
And while I'm not entirely convinced about the use of all tenor
trombones for early orchestra music as quoted by Ray from someone
else, I don't know enough to specifically argue against it. But
history suggests the opposite. The OTHER metaphysical association
trombones had, besides the association with hell or hades, was with
religious music. Composers at LEAST from Schütz (and very likely a
century earlier) through Mendelsssohn knew and used that
association as well. Mozart called for alto, tenor and bass
doubling the alto, tenor and bass choral lines in many of his
sacred works, and the only reason Mendeslssohn used trombones in
his "Reformation" symphony was because of that religious reference.
Here's an article
http://www.britishtrombonesociety.org/resources/shifrin/chapter-1-
from-beethoven-to-schumann.html
He deals with the post-Beethoven symphonic writing for trombone. The
gist is: even though the score may be written in a certain clef and
the tessitura may suit one instrument or another, there is no firm
rule determining what instrument was written for, preferred, or
actually used (the three are completely independent of each other.)
Since the tenor trombone was by far the easiest to play (alto
requires a strong lip and the intonation is more difficult; while the
bass had the unwieldy slide extension handle and was harder to
control) and most plentiful in most of Europe at the time, chances
are that all three parts were played by tenor trombones more often
than not. The tradition of writing the first trombone PART (not the
same as the score!) in alto clef up to the early 20th century has
nothing to do with which instrument was written for.
Since a lot of our documentation is published scores, it should be
pointed out that all three trombone parts frequently were written on
the same staff, and thus in the same clef, alto or tenor, in the
score. The parts are a different story, however.
When I read his procedure and conclusions, it seemed very convincing.
Christopher
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